IFA 2016: Examining the Malaise of Bargain Basement Virtual Reality
by Dr. Ian Cutress on September 9, 2016 9:00 AM ESTBargain Basement, 4 + 5 + 6
#4: Shenzhen Winbest Company Limited, VR102 + VR106
The only company to offer two SKUs, even with different designs, was the Shenzhen Winbest Company Limited. The lower end model, the VR102, uses a full 720x1280 5-inch IPS display with Android 5.1 powered by an RK3126 quard (sic) core SoC. This is a Rockchip design, built on a 40nm process, featuring quad ARM Cortex-A7 cores up to 1.3 GHz and a Mali-400 MP2 GPU. The AIO-VR has 1 GB of DDR3L memory and 8GB of storage which can be supplanted with a microSD card. To top it off, there’s a 2600 mAh battery.
The design for the VR102 is a white chassis with a black face plate, with the system using a directional pad on the top with a separate four buttons for power, menu, and plus/minus. The headset uses a breathable foam/leather mix, and suffers the same face as the other headsets so far.
The upgraded model uses the same Rockchip RK3288 as the first AIO-VR in this list, but the screen is listed as a 2560x1440 display at 5.5-inches combined with a 2GB/16GB memory and storage configuration. The Nibiru OS makes another showing here, and the battery is updated to 4000 mAh. The design is aimed to be a little bit more polished than the lower grade headset, with an integrated HDMI input (or is that output?).
The VR106 had separate IPD adjustments on the bottom of the headset, along with what seems to be the usual array of outputs.
#5: EyeSun Technology Company Limited
No basic details or specifications on this one, aside from the 2600 mAh battery and a 4 hour rated lifespan. It only had one image around the booth about the hardware and the representative couldn’t tell me anything apart from ‘it’s still a prototype’. The look was interesting, so I snapped a few images.
This is no IPD adjustment on these, as we have the same foam/breathable padding around the face with a big gap for the nose. Button placement was on the bottom, showing a directional pad, buttons to switch from 2D to 3D, a microSD card slot, a USB port, a 3.5mm jack, and what looks like a micro-HDMI port.
#6: Hena Digital Technology (Shenzhen) Company Limited VR501
Another device that in many ways mirrors the first one on this list. Under the hood is a Rockchip RK3288, meaning quad-core A7s up to 1.8 GHz and Mali T760MP4 graphics, which is combined with a 1920x1080 IPS screen, Android 5.1, and a WiFi module capable of 802.11n at 2.4 GHz.
Also similar to the first, we got a sense of pricing. I was told that a single sample is $102, with price scaling based on order quantities.
However, there is no IPD adjustment on this headset, but at least the nose area is semi-sealed from the light. This one was actually working and had the Nibiru OS preloaded. The screen was very laggy, and it was clear from even basic motion it was going to cause a large deal of discomfort. These AIO-VRs are clearly for base content consumption, and anything moving is just a bad experience.
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Mugur - Monday, September 12, 2016 - link
IFA 2016? It's in the title...rahulsolanki1818 - Monday, September 12, 2016 - link
virtual reality is an awesome technology , it has improved the way of watching videos.Shadowmaster625 - Monday, September 12, 2016 - link
2.7 million by the end of 2017? At that rate it is going to be 5 years before we see a true killer app for VR. It is going to take a Nintendo-level innovation to actually speed this up.StrangerGuy - Tuesday, September 13, 2016 - link
Given how absolutely tiny the VR market is, I will go as far as to say any VR solution without a first party killer app will be an automatic market failure (like the writeup mentioned, good luck with the chicken and egg problem as a pure HW or SW VR vendor). That only leaves the current gen consoles and Apple with any chance of mainstream success at VR.Nenad - Monday, September 12, 2016 - link
I have GearVR, and I can see advantages of why this can be better than Samsung GearVR - and it is not the price. Basically, this would be "always ready" for use, unlike GearVR where you need to unlock, dock, then undock and unlock again (common GearVR bug that asks to 'unlock' already unlocked phone), then optionally clean phone display etc...
Often I had idea to use GearVR for some short gaming or 3D movie, and decided against due to this 'preparation' time. It is same reason as why I never used my PC for movie watching on TV, even if streaming works - too much time in preparations (set secondary display, change TV source...). It is amazing how important it is for things to "just work" with push of a button, without any complex preparation needed, if people are to use that thing frequently.
mebalzer - Monday, September 12, 2016 - link
As some who develops both hardware and software for VR and Mixed Reality, I appreciate great articles like this to confirm my own findings. Frankly buy a one of the Chinese Snapdragon 820/821 phones from LeTV, OnePlus3. Xiaomi, ZTE, or ZUK or the new Nexus/Pixel that will be Google Daydream compatible with an HMD shell and call it a day. Trying to push more than 60 fps on a mobile platform is hard if you want more than simple shaders and geometry and frankly anymore than that strapped to your head makes no sense. I would rather see more HMD designs like the Pico NEO which tethers the processor/battery/control and keeps the headset light.I can't say a lot right now, but a dual component design that I feel will afford you the ability to use a more powerful SOC (one we haven't seen in a phone), improved (light and comfortable) HMD design, display panel and optics, IMU, positional tracking and a power source without making the thing look the monstrosities from from Intel & AMD is really the only the course one can go at this time if you want to compete with the HTC Vive or even the Sony Playstation VR.
Sadly, getting it to a price point that doesn't make someone have second thoughts that they should have went with a dedicated system is the real challenge and frankly we are not there yet.
By the way, a little sneak peek at my NEODiVR uPLAy http://neodivr.com/images/NEODiVR-uPLAy-280.gif
cptnjarhead - Thursday, September 15, 2016 - link
I have the G7 edge with gearVR. I absolutely love it! Oculus store is great, and the content grows all the time. One of the best apps is the Netflix app. End space (not a rail shooter) is a really fun game, coupled with a Bluetooth controller you really get a great space flight experience. Affected the manor, well my daughter watches scary movies all the time without flinching, and she only lasted 2 minutes with affected, she threw the whole headset off. Sure the graphics are not Vive, or rift, but the whole system works like a console. easy menus and setup. Thats why i feel sony will have the best VR for the money. Content, cost and ease of use will be the winner. If successful, that will push more development to PC and other platforms and in a few years, the current high end VR platforms will seem archaic.serendip - Thursday, September 22, 2016 - link
I just got a VR Box unit as seen in the first image. It's like a fancier Google Cardboard device, with two lenses and a smartphone holder. Surprisingly it's not bad, I use it with a Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 and the resolution is decent. My favorite app so far is a solar system flythrough - the planets look huge hanging in 3D space, although the phone gets burning hot after 10 minutes of play. Movies don't look good on this because the pixels are visible.kompanions - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
Virtual Reality is one of the trending buzzwords of the last couple of years, and yet many people say it still has a way to go until it "catches".